As a Census data nerd, I’ve been geeking out with the rest of my tribe during each American Community Survey (ACS) Data Users Conference. Each one has been a fun and interesting experience, with insider experiences about the challenges and opportunities in using Census data. I use this inside information for the benefit of my clients, who […]
Tag Archives: learning
I’ve been thinking recently about the job of a Chief Data Officer and what it would mean to come into an organization to perform this role. Whether there has been a previous CDO or not, in my experience helping government agencies get a handle on the data they collect and use, the key first task is […]

This blog post is part of a series of posts I’m doing outlining the experiences I’ve had in a year of teaching analytics classes to NYC employees. For more information on the courses I teach, see the Github repository of course outlines and other important information as well as the other posts in this series. I […]
As a life-long student, I’ve been in many classes where the instructor approached a lecture like a monologue scripted beforehand and (attempted to be) delivered flawlessly. The experience was stale and uninteresting. Despite the best efforts of the instructor, I’m sure I retained little if any of the information he or she presented mostly because […]

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. – Auguste Rodin I’m rarely ever truly bored in a training because even in the presentation of basic material, I often find new ways of thinking about topics I may already be familiar with. In presenting the fundamentals, we’re often able to better understand […]
Having recently made the transition to computer science from the “softer” sciences, I’ve come to understand the field of computer science, and probably to a larger extent the entire area of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), suffers from a serious pedagogy problem. Originally I thought this was an issue with my particular teachers, but after […]

Note: This is part of a project I completed as part of a Data Mining class looking at using demographic data to predict fare type usage on the New York City Subway System. I’m publishing posts on the methods I used to analyze the data and the ultimate results in a series of blog posts. […]